


Lonely

by fishfingersandjellybabies



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Super Sons (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 21:25:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17732948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishfingersandjellybabies/pseuds/fishfingersandjellybabies
Summary: It’s been seven years since Jon saw his best friend.





	Lonely

**Author's Note:**

> Because I’m SURE we won’t see it in comics, this is a vague idea of how I think 17yo Jon reuniting with still-13yo Damian would go, especially given the state of Batfam garbage/Damian’s relationships with the fam these days. This ain’t great, but I just want this angsty idea in everyone’s head haha.

Tim glanced between them. Clark, Bruce and – he crossed his arms – Jonathan.

“This isn’t going to go well.” Tim declared. All three looked at him. “I can _promise_ you that.”

Jonathan – now magically seventeen and taller than even Tim – frowned. “You don’t know that.”

“Yes I do.”

“You don’t know Damian like I do.” Jon tried.

“Yes.” Tim countered, with a little more sass than he meant. “I _do_.”

“I’m inclined to agree.” Bruce hummed. “We should go about this a different way. _Wait_ , at least.”

“I’ve waited _seven years_.” Jon whined, hands balling into fists. “I haven’t seen my best friend in _seven years_ , I don’t _want_ to wait any more!”

“Jon…” Clark muttered as Bruce’s face went dark. “Let’s just keep talking…”

“Not everything is about you, Superboy.” Bruce scolded. “And _my_ son is _my_ priority.”

Jonathan pursed his lips, crossed his arms and looked away.

“Seven years for you.” Tim hummed. “But only a few weeks for us. And with…” He frowned, glanced at the floor. “With everything else that’s gone on…I just don’t think Damian will take this well.”

“Everything else?” Jon asked, looked to his father. “What else happened while I was gone?”

“Things.” Bruce grumbled. “None of your concern.”

“Bruce.” Clark warned.

“It’s not.” Bruce repeated. “But it’s enough that any more changes in Damian’s world right now and he likely won’t react…as you want him to.”

And as if on cue, but without any warning: “I think _I’m_ the only one who knows how _I_ will react to anything, Father.”

Tim and Jon both jumped. Bruce just frowned deeper. Clark merely looked Damian’s way as he appeared out of the darkness, Titus tight to his side.

“I thought you were out on patrol.” Bruce rumbled, taking in Damian’s jeans and sweatshirt.

“I was going to, but decided to explore the uncharted areas of the cave instead.” Damian shrugged, motioning for Titus to go lay down on a dog bed across the room. “ _You_ said you wanted me to take more nights off, after all.” He stopped a few feet away from the group. “So, why are you talking about me? What am I supposed to be reacting to?” He looked past Clark and Bruce, at Jon, and narrowed his eyes at the S on his chest. “Who is this?”

Jon stepped forward, grinning wildly. “Damian, it’s me, J-”

“Damian.” Bruce cut off, even as Tim moved between his brother and Jon. “I think you need to sit down.”

“Why? That doesn’t answer the question.” Damian tilted his head. Glanced at Tim when the other walked closer to him and held his arm out, gesturing him towards a nearby stool. “Is this a Superman from another dimension or something?”

Jon snorted. “You _wish_.”

Damian looked over at him, even as Tim led him away, in suspicion. Jon went to follow, but now it was Batman who jumped in front of him. He scowled and crossed his arms once more, shoving his tongue into his cheek.

“ _What_ is going on?” Damian whined to Tim as he plopped onto the stool, hooked his thumbs against their opposite elbow. “ _Who_ is this, and what could he _possibly_ have to do with me?”

“Damian,” Bruce turned to him now, pulled how cowl back. His aged face was lined with worry as he stood over him. Damian, for all his confusion, looked obediently up at him. “Just, before we do this, I want you to know. If at any point you feel uncomfortable or unsure, to just tell me and we’ll-”

“Oh, for crying out loud.” Jon drawled, stepping to the side. He ducked Clark’s reaching hand, stomped forward to stand just behind Bruce. “Sorry, Bruce, but this is ridiculous.” He looked at Damian, grinned, motioned to himself. “D, it’s _me_.”

Damian shook his head. “I don’t…”

“ _Jon_.”

Damian’s eyes went larger than the moon, suddenly looking over Jon again, retaking in the details he’d already dismissed. “No, you…”

“Was stuck in space. Time? I don’t know.” Jon stepped closer, practically pushing Bruce out of the way. Tim stayed tight to Damian’s side. “Dad says I was gone three or so weeks. But for me, it’s been _seven_ _years_.”

Damian just stared in shock. One second, two. Then looked up at Tim. “Is he for real?” Back to Jon. “Are you for _real_?”

“Have you ever known me to lie to you?” Jon asked.

Damian still hesitated for a second, before his eyes froze on Jon’s face. “Your chin. What is that.”

“It’s called a scar.” Jon let his grin wither a little as he reached up to touch the mark. “You know better than me what those are.”

“Then you’re not Jon.” Damian countered. “Jon is Kryptonian. Kryptonians don’t _get_ scars.”

“They do when they fight alien weirdos and are _half human_.” Jon reminded. “A lot of them were a lot stronger than what you and I dealt with.”

“…Impossible.” Damian breathed. Looked first back to Clark, then to Bruce. “This is _impossible_.”

“Unfortunately, you know as well as I do that it’s not, son.” Bruce murmured as Tim put his hand on Damian’s shoulder in comfort. “This…is your friend Jonathan. Confirmed by both Clark and Lois.”

As Bruce spoke, Damian slowly looked back towards Jon, staring like he’d never seen him before. Then his face began to morph. Annoyance. Anger.

…Hurt?

“So what’s next then?” Damian snapped, glancing back up at Bruce. “Is Drake going to be turned into an animal? Wonder Woman going to lose her powers and become an infant? You dying _again_?”

“Damian.” Bruce tried. “I know this is hard…”

“First Grayson loses all of his memories and affection for this family, and now, supposedly, my best friend is suddenly world-weary and almost double the age he was three weeks ago?” He slid off the stool, balled his hands into fists. “I mean, who else in my life is going to be mangled next? Who else is going to be taken from me?”

“Your brother lost his…” Jon mumbled, looking back towards his father. Clark shook his head, waving the topic off for another time. He glanced back towards Damian when he heard him shift, and watched as Damian began to walk away. “And, wait, Damian, _I’m_ not gone, or taken. I’m right _here_ -”

“No, I don’t know you.” Damian shot over his shoulder as he snapped to Titus. “If you are Jonathan Kent, then my Jonathan Kent, the _real_ Jonathan Kent, is _dead_. You’re as much a stranger to me as _Ric fucking Grayson_.”

Jon tried to step after him. “Damian-”

But suddenly, there was a hand on his chest, and Tim in his line of vision. He offered Jon a bitter smile. “Don’t want to say I told you so,” He gently pushed at Jon’s chest, releasing him to take a few steps backwards. “But I definitely told you so.”

When he turned to jog after his younger brother, Jon didn’t follow. Instead, he waited to watch Tim catch up to Damian, throw an arm around his shoulders and lead him and his dog quickly up into the manor, before turning back to Clark.

His eyes were misty with tears as he whispered, “I just wanted to see my best friend, Dad.”

Clark glanced to Bruce – staring up the steps after his boys – before giving Jon a smile similar to Tim’s: bitter and sad.

“So did he, son.”


End file.
